Federal election 2016: Turnbull in Queensland; Shorten in Darwin

Peta Credlin says there is a strategy question about how early the Coalition went out with its costings.

Jared Owens and Rachel Baxendale

Tony Abbott chomps into a raw brown onion

39 min read

7:14AMMay 26, 2016.

Updated 10:31PMMay 26, 2016

Where the leaders are
Latham strikes at Albo
Feeney’s dropped document
Joyce’s cattle, boats link
Peris’ tearful goodbye

And that concludes The Australian’s rolling coverage of Day 19 on the campaign trail. Only 37 more to go ...

10.15pm:Palmer’s Turnbull claim

Clive Palmer has claimed Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull offered to make him the chair of a joint parliamentary committee into the NBN in 2014 in order to avoid further scrutiny of the network by Labor MP Stephen Conroy.

On ABC’s Lateline program, Mr Palmer alleged that Turnbull said to him in 2014: “Clive, would you like to be the joint chairman of the NBN committee, I think that would be really good for you. It’s a job you could do because you’ve got experience in business. I have this terrible problem of Stephen Conroy ringing my CEO every Friday for questioning in the Senate”.

The Palmer United Party leader said Mr Turnbull wanted him to chair the joint committee so it “wouldn’t continue to investigate the NBN and hold it to account”.

He said the offer counts as a form of corruption because the position would have come with “an extra $50,000 a year of the Commonwealth’s money”, and he declined at the time because it was “improper”. “I don’t think that’s the way we should be doing politics in this country,” he said.

9pm:Clements charged by electoral commission

Former NSW Labor boss Jamie Clements will face court next month accused of misusing the electoral roll. Mr Clements is facing possible fines of up to $44,000 for disclosing protected information and using electoral information for a purpose not permitted by election law.

Mark Coultan and Brad Norington have the full story HERE.

8pm:‘Greens division’

Internal “bitter workplace rows”, which culminated last week with the resignation of the NSW Greens treasurer Chris Harris, have broken out within the Greens party, reports ABC’s 7.30.

The program claimed that, behind the scenes, Richard Di Natale’s party was “plagued by animosity and division” which was centred in NSW, where the state party is controlled by a “group of former socialists” known as the watermelons – green on the outside, red on the inside.

“7.30 has spoken to many current and former Green members, some very senior, who were horrified at the infighting and lack of professionalism of their NSW colleagues,” said reporter Conor Duffy. “None would appear on camera.. observers say there’s a culture of avoiding tough scrutiny.”

The former treasurer for the NSW Greens Chris Harris has accused the party of bullying its staff in his leaked resignation letter.

7.15pm:Who won Day 19?

David Crowe’s daily verdict is now live on the site.

“Bill Shorten’s campaign on fairness had a reality check on Thursday. After two years of campaigning against cuts to families, he had to accept unpopular savings like the scrapping of the Schoolkids Bonus and the tightening of the assets test for the Aged Pension. Worse, he had to take the political pain of being forced into the retreat by a series of gaffes from frontbencher and friend David Feeney.”

You can read the full verdict HERE.

6.50pm:‘Trainwreck interview’

Peta Credlin has been discussing the issue of the Coalition’s attack on Labor’s costings on Sky News.

One day after the government stumbled on its claims the Opposition Leader has a costings black hole of up to $67 billion, Labor floundered last night on major spending programs that are crucial to millions of voters, including those on the Age Pension and those who receive Family Tax Benefits Parts A or B.

“I think there’s a strategy question about how early the Coalition went out with its costings announcement, I think that’s fair enough,” Tony Abbott’s former chief of staff told Sky.

“I think there’s a reasonable debate about the timing of that announcement and whether or not they went with the grossed up number or where it was, as it’s come out over the last couple of days, a more reasonable number.

“What people will remember at the end of this week is that it has flushed out Labor on two big areas - pensions and the school kids bonus.”

Ms Credlin also slammed David Feeney’s interview with Sky the previous night, when the Labor justice spokesman hedged on whether the party would continue the Schoolkids Bonus to 1.3 million families, despite attacking the government for two years for phasing out the payment.

“You might be rich enough to forget a $2 million house, but $4 billion of tax payers money, they don’t expect you to forget that,” said Ms Credlin, describing the interview as a trainwreck.

6.30pm:‘We walk together in healing’

Malcolm Turnbull has arrived in Brisbane, where he will campaign tomorrow, after spending today near Rockhampton.

Not to be outdone by Bill Shorten marking National Sorry Day in Darwin, The Prime Minister has written a lengthy blog post on Facebook.

“With optimism and hope, made real by hard work and commitment, we walk together in healing and in reconciliation,” Mr Turnbull wrote.

He has also written of his work with the Bell family and their Ngunawal language group in Canberra to write his Closing the Gap speech earlier this year - the first time a prime minister has spoken an aboriginal language in parliament.

“The loss of language was more than a loss words, it was a loss of knowledge. Knowledge of culture, knowledge of traditions, knowledge of family and kinship,” Mr Turnbull wrote.

“Kevin Rudd acknowledged this grief and loss in the National Apology to the stolen generations on 13 February 2008, and we continue to make amends.

“Recognising our First Australians in the Constitution will be an important next step for our nation.

“Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians continue to demonstrate their resilience and determination to heal. In 2005, ‘Sorry Day’ was renamed our ‘National Day of Healing’.

“Healing together as a nation depends on all of us.”

Mr Turnbull highlighted his commitment to additional funding for the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies earlier this year, saying it would help protect the Indigenous languages that remain, and give them their best chance of survival and revival, as well as ensuring all Australians continue to have access to the AIATS cultural collection.

6pm:Mirabella could clinch Indi: poll

A poll suggests Liberal Sophie Mirabella could clinch the key Victorian seat of Indi at the election. Support is almost evenly split with the coalition on 51 per cent and independent MP Cathy McGowan on 49 per cent with preferences. The Roy Morgan poll also shows voters are mainly concerned about living costs, health services and honest government.

5.15pm:Joyce gets social

Barnaby Joyce made his presence felt in last night’s Regional Leaders Debate - according to Twitter at least.

During the Regional Leaders’ Debate Barnaby Joyce was the most discussed on the social network, according to Twitter statistics. But Greens leader Richard Di Natale grabbed more than twice the amount of chatter than Labor’s Joel Fitzgibbon.

As the #regionalleadersdebate ends which politician caused the most buzz on Twitter? #ausvotes pic.twitter.com/PYP1YngvcJ
â€” #ausvotes (@govAU) May 25, 2016

4.20pm:What you’ve missed

• The biggest story of the day has been Nova Peris’ tearful resignation from the Senate.

• Malcolm Turnbull was in Rockhampton, in the seat of Capricornia where the coalition holds with a wafer-thin margin of 0.8 per cent.

• Bill Shorten has visited Darwin, in the marginal seat of Solomon held by Country-Liberal MP Natasha Griggs by 1.4 per cent.

• The Coalitiontalked about plans for more dams in Queensland, Labor’s economic record; its leader “Billion Dollar Bill” and his “spendometer”.

• Labor talked about new indigenous health commitments and an age-friendly policy for older Australians.

• We talked about the PM emphatically denying there is a link between the Indonesian government and people smuggling, Labor dumping its plan to restore the schoolkids bonus, Mark Latham accusing Albo of deriding voters in western Sydney as “racists”, and David Feeney’s latest blunder(s).

4.00pm:Indigenous health on agenda

Bill Shorten has visited the Danila Dilba health centre in Darwin where he discussed the “Deadly Choices” program with local indigenous kids with WA Senator Pat Dodson and the Labor member for Lingiari, Warren Snowdon.

Labor has committed $5.5 million a year to partner with the Institute of Urban Indigenous Health to roll out the program which is aimed at battling chronic disease.

“We know that if he can help fund a program like this with the right role models... (it gives kids) a chance to look up and see the right choices and not the wrong choices,” Mr Shorten said.

Mr Shorten has committed to convening a national taskforce on kidney disease among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders aimed at bringing together experts and medical practitioners.

A further $9.5 million will go towards closing the gap in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander vision loss as part of a push to try and eliminate trachoma from Australia by 2020.

3.18pm:Not your average doorknock

Some marginal seats come down to only a handful of votes, causing candidates to feverishly knock on doors ahead of a federal election.

Andrew Nikolic, the first-term Liberal MP for the Tasmanian seat of Bass, is cranking it up a notch by delivering flowers as well. It’s quite a world away from his hawkish image as a former army brigadier and head of the parliament’s intelligence and security committee.

A great pleasure to deliver flowers & good wishes to Mrs Chloe Duncan, who is turning 105! #HappyBirthdayMrsDuncan pic.twitter.com/tJNEsJsGeO
â€” Andrew Nikolic (@andrewnikolic) May 26, 2016

2.52pm:Shorten coy on referendum

Bill Shorten has declined to put a time frame on when a referendum on constitutional recognition for indigenous people would be held if Labor wins the federal election.

The opposition leader told reporters in Darwin that he was committed to holding it at the earliest possible moment. Labor senator Pat Dodson, previously a member of the referendum council, said a series of conventions and conferences still have to settle on a proposal people support.

2.13pm:Joyce ‘loose and dangerous’

Bill Shorten has taken aim at Barnaby Joyce for linking the live cattle ban with the increase in asylum seeker boats under the former Labor government, describing him as “loose and dangerous.”

The Opposition Leader suggested the Nationals Leader was unfit to be the Australian deputy prime minister after Mr Joyce appeared to suggest on Wednesday that Jakarta had intentionally unleashed people smuggling boats on Australia as a reprisal for the live cattle ban.

“Barnaby Joyce is loose and dangerous. And is Mr Turnbull seriously asking Australians to consider voting for Barnaby Joyce as deputy Prime Minister?” Mr Shorten said in Darwin.

“Because if he’s not, that is exactly what he’s currently doing whilst he keeps Barnaby Joyce as Deputy Prime Minister.”

Barnaby Joyce. Picture: Alex Coppel

2.03pm:Preventing another Stolen Generation

The Greens have launched a policy aimed at keeping at-risk indigenous children with their families, warning of another “Stolen Generation” unless the trend towards out-of-home care is arrested.

WA Greens leader Rachel Siewert.

The policy includes $20 million to reduce the number of children entering out-of-home care through early intervention, community building and cultural competence training for social workers.

For children who are placed in out-of-home care, the Greens want $10 million for projects that improve participation by children, young people and families in determining where individuals are placed and under what conditions.

The Transition to Independent Living Allowance, paid to young people who are released from out-of-home care, would be doubled to $3000 at an overall cost of $5.4 million.

“Aboriginal children make up less than 5 per cent of the general population yet they make up 35 per cent of children in out of home care. In my home state of WA it is just over 50 per cent,” senator Rachel Siewert said.

“Time and time again I have heard that we are at risk of creating a second Stolen Generation, it must be addressed. We must reduce the number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander kids going into out of home care.”

1.50pm:Kids bonus cut ‘difficult’

Bill Shorten has today defended key decisions not to restore the school kids bonus or unwind the Coalition’s changes to the pension, citing a “very tough financial situation” and guaranteeing Labor would only promise policies it could fund.

While Labor previously opposed the abolition of the school kids bonus in the parliament, the Opposition Leader framed the decision as evidence he was capable of making hard budget choices.

Reinstating the school kids bonus would cost $4.5 billion over four years with the program abolished on the back of support from the Clive Palmer Party. The Gillard government measure handed parents payments for primary and secondary school students of up to $850 a year. They are due to cease in July.

Campaigning in the Northern Territory seat of Solomon in Darwin, Mr Shorten blamed the government’s economic management for the decision and suggested that reinstating the scheme was not affordable.

“Obviously, this is a difficult decision. Obviously we would like to be able to restore that funding which is due to be terminated in the future,” he said.

Shorten with school children in the seat of Solomon, Darwin.

“What has also happened since then is that on top of the tripling of the deficit revealed in the budget; on top of the threat to our AAA credit rating, last Friday, the most recent set of independent budgetary numbers has revealed a very tough financial situation brought about by Liberal incompetence, Liberal mismanagement.

“So we were clear after last Friday that we will have to make some difficult decisions. Let me also be clear, we are rock solid, the only policies that we will support our policies that we can fund. The only policies that we are going to promise are policies that we can deliver.”

On the changes to the pension, which saw a reduction in payment to those with larger assets, Mr Shorten confirmed he would launch a review into the retirement system but is not committed to unwinding the government modifications.

“We think the government’s policies are really unfair on part pensioners,” he said. “We think there will be a whole series of unintended consequences.”

“What we will do if we are fortunate to form a government after July 2 is we will have a review of retirement incomes policy which puts pensions, part pensioners and self-funded retirees at the centre of our deliberations.”

1.39pm:Feeney would be soft on paedophiles

The opposition’s accident-prone justice spokesman, David Feeney, would be soft on paedophiles if he were ever allowed into government, Immigration Minister Peter Dutton says.

David Feeney. Picture: Hollie Adams

Mr Feeney has suffered a series of gaffes in recent days including failing to declare a $2.3 million negatively geared investment property, lacking details about the opposition’s social welfare policies, and leaving Labor talking points behind in a Canberra television studio.

Mr Dutton, asked today about a Pakistani asylum-seeker convicted of abusing a teenage boy in Ipswich, said he was now “cancelling visas of criminals at a record rate”.

“I cancelled a 104 visas of paedophiles just in the last 12 or 15 months and we follow these cases very, very closely and if we can cancel visas or deport people I think we put ourselves in a position where we’re going to save future victims,” the minister told Sydney radio 2GB’s Ray Hadley.

“Would David Feeney take the same approach to these things? Would they have the same hard-line approach to criminals who are here that would seek to do us harm? No.”

1.45pm:Shorten turns sights on banker pay

Labor’s royal commission into the finance sector should examine the “exorbitant wages” paid to some senior bankers, Bill Shorten says.

The Opposition leader, who in April said a royal commission should not look at executive pay, today seized on the issue to deflect attention from the Construction Forestry Mining and Energy Union in Victoria’s securing of a 15 per cent pay rise over three years from some of the state’s biggest builders.

“Ultimately what employers and employees negotiate is their business,” Mr Shorten said in the marginal Darwin-based seat of Dawson.

“I’ll tell you where I start with exorbitant wages: what the big banks are paying their senior executives. What we see in the remuneration system … is another reason to have a royal commission into the banking sector and the financial services industry.

“I for one, and I know millions of my fellow Australians, are frustrated that one hand Mr Turnbull is choosing to give the big banks a $7.4bn tax cut – thanks very much for coming, I’m sure the big banks are voting for Mr Turnbull – on the other hand we see excessive remuneration at the same time as we see literally tens of thousands of consumers being ripped off. It’s another good reason to have a royal commission into the banking industry.”

Mr Shorten, asked on April 21 if he believed a royal commission should look at executive pay, told 3AW’s Neil Mitchell: “I’m not sure that that’s the specific that I was getting at. What I’m getting at is that we’ve got a system where all of the incentives are heavily weighted towards flogging products to customers who don’t need them.

“You know, how many people have you met or know who’ve received in the mail irresponsible lending, in others words credit cards and credit card limits that they can’t sustain and then you see people go to the wall?”

1.30pm: ‘The ticker’ to build dams

More on sweet potatoes, and allied news: Malcolm Turnbull and Barnaby Joyce were of course near Rockhampton to announce $130 million to build the nearby Rookwood Weir as part of the Coalition’s $2.5 billion plan for dams in Queensland.

The pair visited the sweet potato farm with locally based Queensland senator Matt Canavan, Member for the Rockhampton seat of Capricornia Michelle Landry, Member for Dawson, to the north, George Christensen, and Member for Flynn, to the south, Ken O’Dowd.

Sweet potato seed farmer Tom Coleman told them water was the most important factor in his business, and welcomed the dam proposal.

The PM and his deputy dug up some potatoes and Mr Joyce commented on the provenance of the soil, later warning his boss against eating a sweet potato - see post below.

Mr Turnbull said he had been passionate about water policy since he was John Howard’s water minister.

“It is fantastic to be leading a government that is getting on with the job and making sure that we’re capturing and harnessing that water in a way that ensures we can grow the jobs and the economy here in Queensland,” he said.

Mr Joyce said it was clear the government “has the ticker” to build dams all over Australia.

1.20pm: Don’t eat that raw sweet potato, PM

Barnaby Joyce has nailed his duty as deputy prime ministerial wingman, warning Malcolm Turnbull against eating a raw sweet potato at a Queensland farm - with reference to Tony Abbott’s infamous raw-onion-munching moment..

“Do you know what eating that’s called? A possible end to your political career,” Mr Joyce joked to the PM, prompting laughter in the shedful of farmers, dignitaries and media.

Of course none of us will forget the sight of Mr Abbott eating a raw onion whole, like an apple, while visiting an onion farm in Tasmania in March last year, prompting much derision and confusion on social media.

DPM @Barnaby_Joyce warns @TurnbullMalcolm against eating a raw sweet potato #oniongate #auspol @australian pic.twitter.com/bRTxT7ASHb
â€” Rachel Baxendale (@rachelbaxendale) May 26, 2016

1.10pm: Setka comment ‘just dumb’: Shorten

Bill Shorten has repudiated militant construction unionist John Setka’s “stupid” and “just dumb” invocation of Nazi Germany to attack the Coalition’s proposed building code.

“The comment speaks for itself. It’s a stupid comment,” the Opposition Leader told reporters in Darwin.

“I thought it was stupid when Tony Abbott started baiting Labor with use of the word ‘holocaust’ and I don’t approve of it no matter what the background of the person who’s saying it. Full stop. It doesn’t add to the debate. It delivers nothing. Full stop. It’s just dumb.”

1pm:NY Times fires back at Dutton

New York Times columnist Roger Cohen has fired back at Peter Dutton after the Immigration Minister attacked as “shameful” the veteran journalist’s critique of Australia’s border policies.

Cohen, who has written extensively about 1940s Germany and 1990s Yugoslavia, this week accused Australia of “pointless cruelty” and the “progressive dehumanisation” of asylum-seekers.

Mr Dutton yesterday argued Cohen should “stick to US immigration matters” as he “doesn’t have a clue about the success we have had in Australia of actually securing our borders”.

“People like this who tolerate a policy which results in children drowning at sea should hang their heads in shame,” the minister said.

Cohen today returned fire, telling The Australian: “With Mr Dutton’s permission, I’ll write about the subjects I choose.

“A policy that destroys human lives - men, women and children - as a form of cynical deterrence is no ‘success’. In fact it is shameful.

“As Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser demonstrated in the 1970s, there are humane ways to address refugee issues and keep borders secure.

“The self-immolations of recent weeks are reflections of the cruel limbo to which Australia consigns already desperate people. On the islands of Manus and Nauru, sweltering idleness, sexual violence, riots and self-harm make up the existences of the anonymous victims of ‘offshore processing’.

“The policy constitutes a dark chapter for a country whose early history taught every Australian what it is to be sent in chains to a faraway place. It is a failure that Mr Dutton’s gratuitous insulting of the refugees as “illiterate and innumerate” cannot obscure. The policy should be abandoned.”

Roger Cohen’s New York Times piece online.

12.40pm: Bring back free milk

Victorian independent senator John Madigan has a new plan to protect Australia’s dairy farmers from market forces.

“It’s time to bring back free milk in schools, especially since it’s presently cheaper than water. Indeed, the European parliament approved such a measure in March this year,” Senator Madigan, formerly of the Democratic Labour Party, said.

“Australia is literally drowning in a national discount milk lake, while significant numbers of Australian children are known to be malnourished, literally not receiving enough calcium in their diets.

“The failure of the deregulated market to deliver supposedly surplus milk to malnourished Aussie kids is a national disgrace.”

Senator Madigan said the findings of the Whitlam Government’s 1973 finding that the free supply of milk to school children could not be justified on nutritional grounds because the benefits to diet were likely to be minimal beyond the age of seven had since fallen out of step with nutritional science.

Ditch $1 milk or face controls, Joyce tells supermarkets

12.20pm:Shorten ‘must disown’ Setka comment

Malcolm Turnbull says Bill Shorten must “publicly, clearly and emphatically” disassociate himself with Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union Victorian secretary John Setka after Mr Setka made comments overnight likening aspects of the government National Building Code to Nazi Germany.

Campaigning on a sweet potato farm near Rockhampton in central Queensland, Mr Turnbull said Mr Setka had again demonstrated why the rule of law must be restored to the construction sector.

“This is not about politics. This is about economics,” Mr Turnbull said. “The construction sector employs one million Australians.

“The lawlessness and the contempt for law that the CFMEU shows and the reckless abuse we get from Setka, Mr Shorten should disown that and publicly disown what Setka has said and reprimand him for that kind of language.”

Mr Turnbull said there were more than 100 CFMEU officials before the courts on more than 1,000 breaches of industrial law and industrial agreements.

“John Setka is the reason, he is proof positive, of why you need the rule of law restored. If we win this election, we will restore it, and that will be to the benefit of every Australian, every Australian who pays for construction, whether it’s for an apartment they’re buying or whether it’s paying their taxes for hospitals and schools.”

Employment Minister Michaelia Cash warned that the Victorian union boss would “exercise political influence” in a Shorten Labor government.

Read more: Setka savaged for Nazi slur

12.10pm:Albo bites back at Latham

Anthony Albanese has unloaded at his former leader, Mark Latham, repudiating claims he had privately argued to abolish Australia’s borders and derided voters in western Sydney as “racists”.

“What we have there is just relevance deprivation syndrome. I mean, this is a bloke whose business model is that he’ll only get a say and some attention if he makes some extreme out there comments and they’re becoming more and more out there,” the ALP frontbencher told Sydney radio 2GB’s Ray Hadley.

“I absolutely did not say that. I’m confident of that because I would never say that because I don’t believe that.

“This bloke wrote a book remember, the Latham Diary, and he included all sorts of personal material in that? I never bothered to read it, I have to say, but if this statement has happened, surely that would have made his diaries. Game, set and match.”

Mr Albanese took said Mr Latham had a “chip on his shoulder” because he believed he was “the only working class person who’s ever been in the Labor Party”.

“The fact is that Labor Party branch members around Liverpool chipped in money each week to put this bloke through university and he paid them back by being disloyal for the Labor Party. I mean, I worked my way through university,” he said.

“He’s not a fan because I’ve never been a fan of his. I warned people they should never make him leader of the Labor Party because he was not fit to lead the country.”

Mr Latham, who led Labor to ignominious defeat at the 2004 election, last night told Sky News that his former colleagues did “not believe in the integrity of border protection”.

“I remember back in the day having debates with Anthony Albanese where he was screeching at me the main problem is that people in western Sydney are racists,” he said.

“He screeched that at me in front of witnesses one night after the Tampa debate and I’m sure that’s not still his opinion.”

Mr Latham said Mr Albanese was happy to resettle refugees anywhere except in his Sydney inner-west electorate of Grayndler.

Earlier ALP frontbencher Nick Champion said the claims were “they’re just part of Mr Latham’s ‘look at me’ moment – it happens every election campaign.”

12.05pm:Peris did not ‘fit in’

Labor sources told The Australian that the departure of Nova Peris - which shocked parliamentary colleagues and staff on Tuesday - came after many months of isolation for the senator, who was also grappling with family problems.

One Labor senator said Senator Peris felt “she was not going anywhere” in her parliamentary career, and that was exacerbated by Mr Shorten choosing high-profile Patrick Dodson as the party’s new senator for Western Australia and appointing him as his parliamentary secretary.

“She didn’t really fit in and she didn’t come from the culture of the Labor Party and she didn’t make an impact,” the ALP senator said. Another Labor source said clashes with colleagues behind the scenes contributed to Senator Peris gradually being viewed as a poor fit with the party, and eventually to her being “frozen out” of the information stream. “They just stopped talking to her,” a source said.

“This wasn’t easy. It’s hard,” said Nova Peris in Darwin today. Picture: Kym Smith

12pm:Aurukun ‘law and order’ issue: PM

Malcolm Turnbull has described the unrest in the Cape York Aboriginal community of Aurukun as a “law and order problem”, reports Sarah Elks.

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk will travel to the peninsula township tomorrow, after the school was shut and 20 teachers evacuated amid ongoing youth violence and property crime.

Mr Turnbull said he’d spoken to Ms Palaszczuk this morning and offered federal support, in addition to the funding the federal government is already spending on CCTV cameras in the community.

“It is a law and order issue to be managed by the Queensland Police ... we don’t want to make politics out of this,” Mr Turnbull said. “Clearly, there is an element of the adolescent kids there that are going not going to school and that needs to be dealt with.”

Read the full story on Aurukun here

11.45am:Joyce asked about Depp divorce

Barnaby Joyce has given an empathetic response to news of a split between Hollywood actors Johnny Depp and Amber Heard.

Asked whether he felt responsible for the breakup, and whether he would be getting custody of their dogs, Pistol and Boo, which he had deported after Heard smuggled them into Australia on a private jet, Mr Joyce said the end of their relationship was no laughing matter.

“In all seriousness, the one thing I will never revel in is any relationship breakdown, no matter what animosity that might be seen on the air waves between Mr Depp and myself,” Mr Joyce said. “I have always wished the very best for people. No, I would never ever revel in something like that.”

Mr Joyce was touring a sweet potato farm near Rockhampton in Central Queensland with Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull.

Yesterday Depp insulted Joyce on US prime-time TV as “inbred with a tomato”.

Depp’s wife files for divorce

11.40am:No one should judge me: Peris

An emotional Nova Peris has defended her decision to retire from the Senate during an election campaign, warning her critics not to judge her for her actions, reports Joe Kelly

Senator Peris said she was departing politics to spend more time with her family, and brushed aside questions about the unusual timing of her resignation by saying she did not pick the July 2 polling date.

At doorstop with Bill Shorten in Darwin, the outgoing Labor senator - who was fighting back tears - repeatedly said she should not be judged for leaving and emphasised the hardship endured by the Aboriginal people.

“Until you are an Aboriginal person, do not criticise me for the decisions I have made,” she said. “This wasn’t easy. It’s hard.”

“I may be leaving but I’m leaving on my terms. And I want to make this clear. No one should judge me ... It’s not easy to wake up every morning and bounce out of bed and pretend that life is fantastic because it isn’t.

“Aboriginal people have no inherited wealth. They have inherited pain. But we have a vision ... the door that has now been opened by me exiting I wish that person well. And I know that their time in parliament will make a significant difference.”

“This decision I have made has been on family and I have to look after my family and my children ... I hope you respect the decisions I have made.”

Bill Shorten and Nova Peris as she addressed media in Darwin. Picture: Kym Smith

The Opposition Leader said the fact the former Olympian was prioritising her family reflected the fact she was a “great mum” and a champion in the parliament as well as on the athletic track.

“She is a remarkable Australian. The Labor Party have been fortunate to have her energy and commitment in the last three years in the Senate,” he said. “I wish Nova, my friend, the very best in the future.”

Earlier in the morning, Mr Shorten used an address on National Sorry Day to say the longest election campaign in 50 years should be used to throw a focus on issues that were too often overlooked and foster a broader debate on closing the gap.

He said it was a chance to “put the national spotlight on issues” ground down by the “tyranny of low expectations”, saying Australia sent more aboriginal men to jail than university and aboriginal women were 34 times more likely to be hospitalised by family violence and 11 times more likely to die.

“Until the fair go is truly colour blind, Sorry Day will always reminded us that there is further to go, and more to do.”

An emotional Nova Peris speaking alongside @billshortenmp in Darwin pic.twitter.com/b9uLG1rOXW
â€” Liz Burke (@lizeburke) May 26, 2016

11.35am:All hat ...?

Malcolm Turnbull at Tom Acton’s Paradise Lagoons cattle station outside Rockhampton, with the four-year-old Acton twins Orlando, left, and Presley. Picture: Lyndon Mechielsen

11.30am: Main stories so far today

* Barnaby Joyce under fire: Former Indonesian foreign minister Marty Natalegawa has dismissed as “patently false” any suggestion of a link between the live cattle trade suspension and the flow of asylum-seekers.

* David Feeney’s latest blunder: He left behind a document containing Labor’s campaign “talking points” after a television interview with Sky News yesterday.

* Mark Latham strikes again: The former Labor leader accuses Anthony Albanese of deriding voters in western Sydney as “racists” in previous internal party debates. An ALP frontbencher describes it as another “look at me moment” from Latham.

Malcolm Turnbull is in Rockhampton, in the marginal Queensland seat of Capricornia, where he is talking beef with cattle farmers and announcing $130 million for a local dam.

Bill Shorten is in Darwin, where he has made a speech for National Sorry Day accompanied by outgoing indigenous senator Nova Peris, who has just made a defiant and emotional statement to the media - more on that shortly.

11.10am:Morrison lashes ‘fiscally reckless’ ALP

Treasurer Scott Morrison has lambasted the opposition as “politically cynical and fiscally reckless” for adopting government budget cuts despite running online petitions calling on the measures to be reversed.

Labor treasury spokesman Chris Bowen today revealed Labor would not repeal savings from the age pension assets test or the SchoolKids’ bonus enacted by the Coalition with the backing of Palmer United and the Greens.

However the ALP is today still collecting signatures for a petition to “stand against” the Liberal government’s “unfair pension cuts”.

“Our pensioners have worked hard their whole lives. They deserve better than the Liberals’ cuts,” the petition reads.

The SchoolKids’ Bonus petition, which called on the government to keep the payment beyond January, was removed from Labor’s website more than two months ago. It had garnered 33,283 signatures as of March last year.

Mr Morrison stood by his claim of a black hole in Labor’s costings of up to $67 billion, saying Bill Shorten was “spending money that he’s already spent”.

DENNIS SHANAHAN: Morrison retreats

“They have engaged in a cynical political exercise over the last few years of seeking to play to particular constituencies – tell pensioners that they were going to reverse changes, tell parents that they were going to reverse the SchoolKids Bonus, telling people who are passionate about foreign aid that they wouldn’t go ahead with the government’s foreign aid cuts,” Mr Morrison said.

“Well, we’ve flushed them out, we’ve exposed them for exactly what they are – politically cynical and fiscally reckless.”

Mr Bowen, interviewed on ABC radio, said Labor could not retain the Schoolkids’ Bonus because of the tough economic conditions.

“If it were up to Labor we would still have the SchoolKids’ Bonus but we have now had the pre-election economic forecast, we know that the government has tripled the budget deficit, we know the AAA credit rating is under real threat, so we are taking a very responsible approach in all our promises,” he said.

“No families will be better off under Labor because we won’t be proceeding with the cuts to family tax benefit in the way that the government’s proposing and that is a real difference for families, but we will not be able to afford to bring back the SchoolKids Bonus.”

Mr Bowen, asked about the age pension assets test, said: “This was something that we had a view on in the parliament but we can’t restore all of the damage that this Abbott-Turnbull government has done in one term, so we won’t be in a position to reverse this change immediately.”

10.30am:Wilkie praises Blair ‘backbone’

Independent Tasmanian MP Andrew Wilkie – a former intelligence analyst who shot to prominence as a critic of the Iraq War – has praised former British prime minister Tony Blair for showing the “backbone” to concede the consequences of the 2003 invasion were profoundly miscalculated.

Mr Blair, readying his defence ahead of an independent report on Britain’s war planning, said yesterday: “For sure, we underestimated profoundly the forces that were at work in the region and would take advantage of change once you toppled the regime.

“The lesson is simple. It is that when you remove a dictatorship, out come these forces of destabilisation, whether it is al-Qa’ida on the Sunni side or Iran ... on the Shia side.”

Mr Wilkie described the Iraq War as “one of the most serious security blunders in Australian history” and demanded the next government follow Britain’s led by commissioning an independent report into alleged “war crimes” by John Howard’s government.

“The 2003 invasion was one of a series of events which have virtually destroyed Iraq and created the circumstances for the rise of Islamic State and the other terror threats which plague Australia to this very day,” he said.

“But still no one in Australia has been held to account, even though former Prime Minister John Howard, former Foreign Minister Alexander Downer and others stand accused of war crimes.

“By comparison, former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair has at least had the honesty and backbone to concede to the enormity of the blunder.

“I call on whoever wins the election to finally instigate a full inquiry into the debacle with broad terms of reference to examine not just the performance of the intelligence agencies, but also of the politicians and bureaucrats who advised them.

“The countless people who have been killed and injured by this unnecessary and ongoing war, including members of the Australian Defence Force, deserve nothing less.”

10.15am: Turnbull talks cattle

The Turnbull bus has made its first stop at the Paradise Lagoons cattle station outside Rockhampton, which is owned by brother and sister Tom and Tory Acton, children of late cattleman Graeme Acton. Mr Acton tragically died from his injuries after falling off a horse in 2014. Tony Abbott visited the station in 2015 to unveil a plaque in Acton’s memory.

Mr Turnbull talked beef with the Actons, crediting Barnaby Joyce with a doubling of cattle prices in recent years and talking up Australia’s free trade agreements.

He also talked about his own Hunter Valley cattle property, channelling Alan Jones’s comment about Turnbull’s wealth yesterday and telling the Actons his cattle operation is “not on your scale”. Mr Turnbull said he and Lucy sell about 700 Hereford-Angus cross calves each year.

Now we’re off to a sweet potato farm.

"Not on your scale" Hunter grazier @TurnbullMalcolm talks beef w Tom & Tory Acton #ausvotes @australian pic.twitter.com/5C06oNa94O
â€” Rachel Baxendale (@rachelbaxendale) May 25, 2016

10.05am:Wang “happy to lead PUP”

West Australian senator Zhenya Wang – the last remaining elected official of the Palmer United Party – says he is now “happy to be leader”.

Senator Wang, asked to name the PUP’s new leader following the retirement of Clive Palmer, told Sky News: “It could be me, but I’m not really bothered.”

“I’m happy to be leader – that’s for sure – and as I’ve joked around before I’ve been doing my numbers on Clive, and I was only one vote short. Now I am one vote over,” he said.

“I’ve never put my party interest ahead of Western Australia’s interest and that’s what I’ll continue to do.”

The PUP at its peak comprised Clive Palmer as the MP for Fairfax and three senators – Zhenya Wang, Jacqui Lambie and Glenn Lazarus – with Australian Motoring Enthusiast Party senator Ricky Muir joining them in a voting bloc.

The party also attracted disaffected state and territory MPs Alex Douglas and Carl Judge from Queensland’s Liberal National Party and Alison Anderson, Larisa Lee and Francis Xavier Kurrupuwu from the Northern Territory Country Liberals.

All except Senator Wang have parted ways with Mr Palmer, who is not standing for re-election this time around.

Zhenya Wang: “It could be me, but I’m not really bothered.” Picture: Ray Strange

10am:Some media hints for Turnbull

Robert Gottliebsen writes in his opinion piece this morning that Malcolm Turnbull’s failure to sell his message is hurting his campaign, and he’ll need to sharpen the script if he wants to cut through. “I have been around the radio game for many decades, so, with respect Mr. Prime Minister, let me give you a few hints.”

How Malcolm Turnbull can lift his media game

9.50am: More Depp issues for Barnaby

And speaking of Barnaby Joyce, will he be asked about the reported split between Johnny Depp and Amber Heard during his media appearances with Malcolm Turnbull in Rockhampton today?

After all, it was only yesterday Depp insulted Joyce on US prime-time TV as “inbred with a tomato”. And what will become of the Deputy Prime Minister’s least-favourite little dogs, Pistol and Boo?

Depp’s wife files for divorce

Amber Heard & Johnny Depp have reportedly filed for divorce - we'll await an official comment from @Barnaby_Joyce. https://t.co/GErkR41TKo
â€” Sky News Australia (@SkyNewsAust) May 25, 2016

9.40am:Shorten speech on Sorry Day

Bill Shorten is starting his day in Darwin, with the Labor leader due to make a speech for National Sorry Day this morning before heading to the Michael Long Learning and Leadership Centre, reports Joe Kelly.

Mr Shorten will also make a commitment to help assist indigenous Australians who are struggling with chronic disease by providing $5.5 million a year to partner with the Institute of Urban indigenous Health to roll out the “Deadly Choices” program.

This will help promote healthy choices and help create partnerships with sporting organisations.

Mr Shorten will also convene a national taskforce on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander kidney disease to bring together experts and medical practitioners to help tackle the problem with Labor pledged to commit $295,000 to the taskforce.

A further $9.5 million will go towards closing the gap in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander vision loss as part of a push to try and eliminate trachoma from Australia by 2020.

9.20am: Latham’s ‘look at me moment’

Labor frontbencher Nick Champion rejected Mark Latham’s claim that Anthony Albanese had last month derided voters in western Sydney as “racists”.

“Albo said these claims are false and they’re just part of Mr Latham’s ‘look at me’ moment – it happens every election campaign,” he told Sky News.

“I can only suggest that the whole nation hits the mute button whenever Mr Latham appears on TV because it’s really about attention-seeking and not about the merits of this particular issue.”

9am: Joyce “stating the bleeding obvious”

Scott Morrison has denied Barnaby Joyce linked the Indonesian cattle trade to asylum-seekers at all - despite Mr Joyce himself saying this morning he was “stating the bleeding obvious”.

The ABC’s Michael Brissenden today asked the Treasurer: “Do you agree with Barnaby Joyce that the suspension of the live cattle trade was somehow linked an increase in boat arrivals?”

Mr Morrison replied: “I don’t accept that that is the link that Barnaby made last night.”

Finance Minister Mathias Cormann told 2GB’s Olivia Leeming: “Barnaby Joyce has clarified his statements this morning. I don’t think that there is anything else that I can add to that.”

The Deputy Prime Minister, interviewed on the Seven Network’s Sunrise, today insisted there was a “direct correlation” between the suspension of the trade and around 40,000 asylum-seekers who subsequently attempted to reach Australia.

“Obviously it didn’t help our capacity in how we negotiate with a country when we just shut down one of their prime mechanisms of getting protein into their diet. It doesn’t help when you create what they would see as a loss of face because just overnight we ban live cattle and they relied on the live cattle trade for so much of the dietary requirements especially of their major city Jakarta,” Mr Joyce said.

“I’m not saying this caused the Indonesians to start sending people across. I never suggested that. What I did clearly suggest is it made it difficult, it gave a real degree of difficulty in how we negotiate with Indonesia and after that point we needed all of reason in the world to negotiate with them because 40,000 people made their own arrangement and just arrived here by boat.

“I’m just stating the bleeding obvious; you don’t want to just basically, what they would determine, insult another country by overnight ceasing the supply of a major requirement of their dietary intake which is meat.”

Mr Joyce said he was “up in Indonesia all the time” and got on “very well” with local officials.

Labor frontbencher Nick Champion said Mr Joyce’s “incoherent ramblings” were designed to keep asylum policy on the agenda.

“They’re desperate to have these matters discussed so they’ll make all sorts of outlandish comments in the course of this campaign,” Mr Champion told Sky News.

“What we want is sensible, coherent debate – that’s what the Prime Minister originally promised Australians – and sadly that’s not what we’re getting.”

8.55am:Big brahman in Rockhampton

And we’re in Rockhampton. First stop for the Turnbull bus this morning is a cattle yard.

The Prime Minister will then head to a sweet potato farm with his deputy Barnaby Joyce, Queensland Nationals senator Matt Canavan, and local MP Michelle Landry. They’ll then attend a community morning tea.

We’re expecting Mr Joyce to face a few questions about his comments last night linking Labor’s 2013 ban on live exports to Indonesia with an increase in asylum-seeker boats.

Today’s main announcement is $130m for the local Rookwood Weir as part of the Coalition’s $2.5bn Queensland dams policy.